Business Asset Rollover Relief is a valuable relief that allows you to defer payment of CGT on gains made when you sell or dispose of certain assets and use all or part of the proceeds to buy new assets. The relief means that the tax on the gain of the old asset is postponed. The amount of the gain is effectively rolled over into the cost of the new asset and any CGT liability is deferred until the new asset is sold.
Where only part of the proceeds from the sale of the old asset is used to buy a new asset a partial rollover claim can be made. It is also possible to claim for provisional rollover relief where you expect to buy new assets but haven’t done so yet. Interestingly, rollover relief can also be claimed if you use the proceeds from the sale of the old asset to improve assets you already own. The total amount of rollover relief is dependent on the total amount reinvested to purchase new assets.
HMRC’s internal manual lists the following key conditions for the relief:
- The old assets are within one of the classes listed in CG60280 and have been used solely for the purposes of the trade throughout the period of ownership, and
- the whole of the consideration obtained for the disposal is applied in acquiring new assets within one of the classes listed in CG60280 which are, on the acquisition taken into use wholly for the purposes of the trade.
There are also other qualifying conditions to be met to ensure entitlement to any relief. For example, you should purchase the new assets within 3 years of selling or disposing of the old ones (or up to one year before). Under certain circumstances, HMRC has the discretion to extend these time limits. In addition, both the old and new assets must be used by your business and the business must be trading when you sell the old assets and buy the new ones. You must claim relief within 4 years of the end of the tax year when you bought the new asset (or sold the old one, if that happened after).
